Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner

Horace Alfred “Hod” Fenner 

[b 12 July 1897 at Martin, MI; d 20 Nov. 1954 at Detroit, MI] Horace Alfred “Hod” Fenner attended Kalamazoo College starting in the fall of 1915, living in a campus dorm. While there, he played on the college baseball team, the Kazooks. This continued for two years until he entered the WWI draft, enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps on 18 July 1917 at Paris Island, SC. He was promoted to Corporal on 14 Feb. 1918, then to 1st Sergeant on 1 Oct. 1918, and entered the 3rd Marine Officers’ Training Camp at Quantico, VA, on 3 Jan. 1919. He was discharged from duty on 18 Mar. 1919.

Horace returned to Kalamazoo College in time to resume his membership in the baseball team for the 1919 college season. Referring to the first game of the season, a yearbook writer recounted, “Fenner, who was on the mound for Kazoo, had the Adrian team completely at his mercy.” The same writer said, “Fenner is without a doubt the best college pitcher in Michigan. He has an assortment of curves and a change of speed that is bewildering.”[1] The following year, in a game against Notre Dame on 29 April 1920, a reporter said, “Fenner, the Kalamazoo hurler, was a puzzle until the ninth,” going scoreless through eight, then giving up three runs in the final frame.[2] That summer, he joined a local Class B minor league baseball team—officially called the Celery Pickers but often colloquially called the Kazooks—and found some success there. He did this again, pitching college and semi-pro ball over 1920–1921. He graduated from Kalamazoo College in the spring of 1921 with a degree in Social Sciences.

He started the 1921 season with the Pickers on a hot streak, winning nine games in a row. In September 1921, he was recruited to pitch for the Chicago White Sox, appearing in two regular season games and an exhibition game. In his first game, 9 Sept. 1921, he was overwhelmed by the Detroit Tigers, giving up six runs on eight hits in three innings of work. It was a hitter’s game, with 42 hits between the two teams, the White Sox losing 20–15. In his second game, 24 Sept. 1921, he was more successful, taking over the mound in the fifth inning and pitching four scoreless frames against the Philadelphia Athletics. The report from the game said, “Then Kerr went away and Fenner finished. He was strong.”[3] Four days later, 28 Sept. 1921, he pitched for the White Sox in an exhibition game against the Buffalo International League team. He entered the game as a reliever: “Fenner, the Kalamazoo right-hander, held the Bisons to four hits after the fifth and without a run.”[4]

The White Sox declined to take him into the 1922 season, so he played another summer for Kalamazoo, then no more. His decision to leave semi-pro baseball was likely related to his courtship of Dorothy Shierk [b 27 July 1899 at Brockville, Leeds, Ontario, Canada; d 24 Sept. 1973 in Los Angeles, CA], daughter of Albert E. Shierk and Susan Shuttleworth. Dorothy’s family had moved to Kalamazoo in 1905. Horace and Dorothy had been students together at Kalamazoo College; she graduated in 1921 with a degree in French. They were married on 12 Sept. 1923 in Kalamazoo. Horace spent most of his adult life working for the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company, a paper mill situated on the Kalamazoo River, on the northeast side of the city. The owner of the mill, Jacob Kindleberger, bought large swaths of land around the mill and sold parcels to his employees, eventually incorporating as the village of Parchment. Horace and Dorothy bought a plot on Riverview Drive and lived there for many years. Around 1942 they moved to Detroit, MI.

After Horace’s death, Dorothy m C. Warren Cole on 29 Aug. 1958. They lived for several years in Decatur, IN, before moving to California.

1. Barbara Anne [b 6 Sept. 1924 at Kalamazoo, MI] m Robert E. Nutter [b ca. 1923]; had four children, including Carolyn, James, and Michael.

2. Twin infants [b/d 1931].

Lineage:
[ Arthur | Thomas | Joseph | Asahel ] : James | Russel | William | Ernest | Horace

Sources:
1. The K-Zoo (Kalamazoo College, 1919).
2. “Notre Dame’s ninth round rally beats Kalamazoo,” Chicago Tribune, 30 April 1920.
3. “No. 25 to Faber as Sox win, 18–1; lose first, 7 to 4,” Chicago Tribune, 25 Sept. 1921.
4. “Even Buffalo beats the Sox this season,” Daily Chronicle (Dekalb, IL), 29 Sept. 1921.
5. Hod Fenner, Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fenner001hor
6. Horace’s memorial at FindaGrave, no. 25812179
7. Dorothy’s memorial at FindaGrave, no. 39483549